The Forteans

Formed in a smoky garage outside Pasadena in 1956, The Forteans were five oddballs with a taste for harmony and the unexplained. Detmer Disraeli, Hugh Gone, Abner Wasplitner, Kirk McKirk, and their most mysterious member — Black Car — claimed to take their name from Charles Fort, the chronicler of things science couldn’t explain. Their music blended West Coast doo-wop with a streak of the uncanny: sock-hop beats about flying saucers, fat-cat daddies, and the hidden lives of Hollywood’s night owls. Rumor has it they signed a devil’s-bargain contract on Mulholland Drive, then vanished just as suddenly as they appeared. Surviving acetates — scuffed and half-forgotten — reveal a group forever caught between teen-pop innocence and something darker. Fans whisper that The Forteans never really broke up; they just slipped sideways, waiting for the right night to sing again.